中學時期的馬斯克表現如何？

Musk
was a good student, but not a superstar. When he was nine and ten, he
got A’s in English and Math. “He is quick to grasp new mathematical
concepts,” his teacher noted. But there was a constant refrain in the
report card comments: “He works extremely slowly, either because he
dreams or is doing what he should not.” “He seldom finishes anything.
Next year he must concentrate on his work and not daydream during
class.” “His compositions show a lively imagination, but he doesn’t
always finish in time.” His average grade before he got to high school
was 83 out of 100.

馬斯克是個好學生，但不是超級明星。九歲和十歲時，他的英語和數學成績都是

A。"他的老師說："他很快就能掌握新的數學概念。但是，在成績單的評語中，有一句話始終縈繞在耳邊："他做得特別慢，不是因為他在做夢，就是在做他不該做的事。""他很少完成任何事情。明年他必須集中精力做作業，不要在上課時做白日夢"。"他的作品展現了豐富的想象力"
"但他總是不能及時完成"上高中前，他的平均成績是 83 分（滿分 100 分）。

After
he was bullied and beaten in his public high school, his father moved
him to a private academy, Pretoria Boys High School. Based on the
English model, it featured strict rules, caning, compulsory chapel, and
uniforms. There he got excellent grades in all but two subjects:
Afrikaans (he got a 61 out of 100 his final year) and religious
instruction (“not extending himself,” the teacher noted). “I wasn’t
really going to put a lot of effort into things I thought were
meaningless,” he says. “I would rather be reading or playing video
games.” He got an A in the physics part of his senior certificate exams,
but somewhat surprisingly, only a B in the math part.

在公立高中受到欺負和毆打後，他的父親將他轉到了一所私立學校–比勒陀利亞男子高中。這所學校以英國模式為基礎，校規嚴格，有鞭笞、強制性禮拜和校服。在那裡，除了兩門科目外，他的其他科目都取得了優異成績：南非荷蘭語（最後一年的滿分是
100 分，他考了 61 分）和宗教教育（老師說他
"沒有擴充套件自己"）。"他說："我並不想在我認為毫無意義的事情上花費太多精力。"我寧願去讀書或玩電子遊戲"。在高階證書考試中，他的物理部分得了
A，但令人有些意外的是，數學部分只得了 B。

In
his spare time, he liked to make small rockets and experiment with
different mixtures—such as swimming-pool chlorine and brake fluid—to see
what would make the biggest bang. He also learned magic tricks and how
to hypnotize people, once convincing Tosca that she was a dog and
getting her to eat raw bacon.

業餘時間，他喜歡製作小火箭，並用不同的混合物–比如游泳池裡的氯和剎車油–做實驗，看哪種混合物能發出最大的爆炸聲。他還學習魔術和催眠術，有一次他讓托斯卡相信自己是一隻狗，還讓她吃了生燻肉。

As
they would later do in America, the cousins pursued various
entrepreneurial ideas. One Easter, they made chocolate eggs, wrapped
them in foil, and sold them door-to-door. Kimbal came up with an
ingenious scheme. Instead of selling them cheaper than the Easter eggs
at the store, they made them more expensive. “Some people would balk at
the price,” he says, “but we told them, ‘You’re actually supporting
future capitalists.’ ”

就像他們後來在美國所做的那樣，這對錶兄弟追求各種創業想法。有一年復活節，他們製作了巧克力蛋，用鋁箔紙包裹，挨家挨戶推銷。金巴爾想出了一個巧妙的辦法。他們並沒有賣得比商店裡的復活節彩蛋便宜，而是賣得更貴。"他說："有些人會對這個價格表示反對，但我們告訴他們，'你們實際上是在支援未來的資本家'。"

Reading
remained Musk’s psychological retreat. Sometimes he would immerse
himself in books all afternoon and most of the night, nine hours at a
stretch. When the family went to someone’s house, he would disappear
into their host’s library. When they went into town, he would wander off
and later be found at a bookstore, sitting on the floor, in his own
world. He was also deeply into comics. The single-minded passion of the
superheroes impressed him. “They’re always trying to save the world,
with their underpants on the outside or these skin-tight iron suits,
which is really pretty strange when you think about it,” he says. “But
they

are

trying to save the world.”

閱讀仍然是馬斯克的心理避風港。有時，他整個下午和大半夜都沉浸在書海中，一讀就是九個小時。當一家人去別人家時，他會消失在主人的圖書館裡。當他們進城時，他會四處遊蕩，後來在一家書店被發現，他坐在地板上，沉浸在自己的世界裡。他還對漫畫情有獨鍾。超級英雄們一心一意的熱情給他留下了深刻印象。"他說："他們總是試圖拯救世界，外面穿著內褲或緊身鐵衣，仔細想想真的很奇怪。"但他們試圖拯救世界"。

Musk
read both sets of his father’s encyclopedias and became, to his doting
mother and sister, a “genius boy.” To other kids, however, he was an
annoying nerd. “Look at the moon, it must be a million miles away,” a
cousin once exclaimed. Replied Elon, “No, it’s like 239,000 miles,
depending on the orbit.”

馬斯克閱讀了父親的兩套百科全書，在寵愛他的母親和姐姐眼裡，他是個 "天才兒童"。然而，在其他孩子眼裡，他卻是個討厭的書呆子。"有一次，他的一個堂兄感嘆道："你看月亮，它一定在一百萬英里之外。埃隆回答說："不，好像是23.9萬英里，這取決於軌道。"

One
book that he found in his father’s office described great inventions
that would be made in the future. “I would come back from school and go
to a side room in my father’s office and read it over and over,” he
says. Among the ideas was a rocket propelled by an ion thruster, which
would use particles rather than gas for thrust. Late one night at the
control room of his rocket base in south Texas, Musk described the book
at length to me, including how an ion thruster would work in a vacuum.
“That book is what first made me think about going to other planets,” he
said.

他在父親的辦公室裡發現了一本書，書中描述了未來的偉大發明。"他說："我放學回來，就會跑到父親辦公室的一間偏房，反覆閱讀這本書。他說，"這些想法中包括用離子推進器推進火箭，這種推進器利用粒子而不是氣體提供推力。一天深夜，在得克薩斯州南部火箭基地的控制室裡，馬斯克向我詳細描述了這本書，包括離子推進器如何在真空中工作。"他說："正是這本書讓我第一次想到要去其他星球。